You sure about the lawsuit thing? "In contrast to corporate law, which allows shareholders and officers to be individually sued if the corporate formalities are not followed, the LLC law specifically bars a lawsuit against a member for the liabilities of the LLC" http://www.rjmintz.com/appch6.html
Additionally, an LLC separates business assets from personal assets - if your LLC goes bankrupt, the creditors can't get anything you've never used as part of your business. "For those troubled businesses that operate through an asset protection vehicle like an LLC, the debts and obligations of the business are those of the limited liability company and not the business owners personally" http://thellcexpert.com/llcanswers/ I was a sole proprietor for six years, then got "big" enough to where having an LLC makes sense. At $50/year in Oregon, it's cheap. Also in Oregon, taxes are handled the same for a single owner LLC and a Sole Proprietorship. Has anyone here been sued over IT stuff? I can't imagine a scenario where an IT shop would get successfully sued if they were following best practices and making an honest effort on things. For damages there is insurance, which is also really cheap at $500/year. Less than $600 annually to protect your business is cheap! One thing I love about being an IT shop - overhead is really really cheap! LLC is the way to go if it's just you. David Lum // SYSTEMS ENGINEER NORTHWEST EVALUATION ASSOCIATION (Desk) 971.222.1025 // (Cell) 503.267.9764 From: Webster [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2009 11:27 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Incorporate, LLC, or ??? From: Stephan Barr [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of lists Subject: RE: Incorporate, LLC, or ??? At least in Missouri, when you become an LLC, your personal assets are separated from your LLC assets and aren't legally available for suit actions. That's the reason I did it. If you personally did the work and screwed up, I can sue you personally. LLC or not, I can come get you and your stuff. The LLC doesn't do the work, you do. A good and or aggressive lawyer can get your personal stuff regardless of LLC, Sub Chapter S or C Corp status. Webster ________________________________ From: Webster [mailto:[email protected]] Subject: RE: Incorporate, LLC, or ??? From: Stephan Barr [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of lists Subject: RE: Incorporate, LLC, or ??? My accountant tells me the deductions are the same/similar as LLC as sole proprietorship are same/similar in Missouri. So what is the point of going the LLC route? If you take out a loan, you sign personally to guarantee the loan. If you take out a lease, you will sign personally to guarantee the lease. Unless you have a lot of assets to protect, what is the point of becoming an LLC? If you don't do all your LLC paperwork and record keeping in order, there is no corporate veil to cover your ASSets. Seems like you are throwing money to lawyers and accountants when you should be buying more RAM, more storage and faster processors! :) Webster ________________________________ From: Webster [mailto:[email protected]] Subject: RE: Incorporate, LLC, or ??? From: Stephan Barr [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of lists Subject: RE: Incorporate, LLC, or ??? LLC here. Do it; it's cheap and easy and then you can deduct lot's o stuff. Can you give me one example on what you can deduct as an LLC that you can't deduct as a Sole Prop.? ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
